


The Curse of the Vinik-Shal

by MaxKowarth



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Dubious Morality, Dubious Science, Gen, Gothic, Originally Posted on LiveJournal, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Transformation, badly researched colonial America
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:41:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26291308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaxKowarth/pseuds/MaxKowarth
Summary: A trip to New York goes awry when The Doctor and Sarah discover the locals are holding a creature beyond their understanding.What cost freedom for them all?Originally posted on Livejournal 15.3.2006
Relationships: The Doctor (Doctor Who) & Sarah Jane Smith
Kudos: 1





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

> Starring Tom Baker as Dr. Who  
> Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith
> 
> with  
> Vladek Sheybal as Ternum Faulkner  
> Colin Jeavons as Abraham Faulkner  
> Ayshea Brough as Millie  
> and Cherry Gillespie as the Vinik-Shal
> 
> Broadcast somewhere around 'The Brain of Morbius'

The cart groaned alarmingly as it wended its way through the dense fog.  
At its helm the stiff-backed figure in the top hat flicked the whip impatiently and muttered to itself. The dark glowerings were not to chide the horse on its perilous journey. The snap of the whip instead fell onto the canvas of the cart causing it to swell and flick.  
The figure muttered louder and returned its attention to driving the cart.  
The fog swirled around the departing vehicle until it was lost to sight.  
In its wake, a shadow passed over the cobbles. Their damp, fog bound surfaces, flashed briefly dry as subjected to an intense heat.  
The shadow flickered as it followed the cart and despite it not being cast by any being, clawed footprints marked its route.

Moments later something else agitated the hanging mist. Its particles swirled and scattered as a sliding, hacking roar rent the air within. A light began to flash in mid air, becoming brighter as it began to illuminate the edges of a tall blue box.  
When the light ceased the edge of the roadway now housed a battered 1950s Police Box, lit from within despite the lack of power. Somehow it looked as though it should always have been there, which was no mean feat for a device that had just appeared out of thin air.

The door at the front squeaked open and a tall man stormed out in a flurry of clothes.  
“Better bring a coat Sarah, Looks like rain!” he called behind him. The man certainly struck a bizarre figure, knee length grey overcoat with velvet trim at the collar and leather patches on the elbows. Beige slacks under a black and orange twelve-button waistcoat and a high open collar that braced his broad neck. All that without mentioning the inordinately long scarf of many colours wrapped at least twice around him and still trailing on the floor. 

This then was the traveller in time and space known only as The Doctor.  
As he stared into the fog his bright wide eyes narrowed above the beak of a nose. His usually genial features were a mask of concern.  
He dug in his coat pocket and withdrew a broad brimmed felt hat, which he proceeded to plonk haphazardly over the mass of curls that framed his face.  
The door of the Police Box opened again to reveal an attractive girl with a bob of dark hair that had grown out of control. Though her eyes were wide they were a vivid hazel over a button nose. She was still young enough that neither the occasional scream nor her more usual smiles had etched themselves onto her face. She wore blue jeans, sensible shoes and a dark green long-sleeved shirt under the enveloping parka she had evidently struggled to get into.  
She pulled the door of the Police Box closed behind her and turned to marvel at the new landscape that surrounded her.  
She blinked.  
She pouted.  
Then she stomped up the Doctor and poked him in the arm.

“Well this is just great, I thought we were going to New York? Getting to know the colonies you said. You should get that TARDIS looked at.”  
“There’s nothing wrong with the TARDIS, Sarah.” The Doctor muttered darkly.  
Sarah Jane Smith rolled her eyes and shook her head. She recognised his tone of old.  
“Not another doom of the universe speech.”  
“Hmm?” For a time lord who claimed to be in his mid 700s the Doctor’s hearing could be extremely selective at times. “We’re where I said we’d be, New York State in the British colonial period. Or there about's” he swung his gaze toward her, his large toothy grin suddenly infecting his face with its humour. “Well, give or take a few years”  
“Oh well that’s marvellous, why do I get the feeling we’ll be run out of town as British spies before the days out?”  
“That’s it, always look on the bright side.” He started off up the slope of the roadway, pushing the edges of his coat away to stuff his hands in his trouser pockets for warmth.  
“Hey! How do you know when we are anyway? You didn’t even look at the console when we landed, just swanned off.” 

The Doctor pulled a hand from his pocket and pointed dramatically downward.  
“Cobbles!”  
“Same to you.”  
“Right size and placing for the period, the airs crisp and clean, no sign of the industrialisation that’s likely to be tearing you own little island apart right now. Mean’s we should be quite a ways upstate probably ideal for tourist season.”

Sarah was examining the cobbles for clues as she jogged to catch up with him when she spotted the first dark footprint.  
“Doctor?”  
“What now Sarah?”  
“Come and look at this.” She pointed out the claw marks on the cobbles. “You’re not telling me that’s a bear or something.”  
The timelord drew a magnifying glass from his coat pocket and knelt on the ground. After a moment he drew a handful of his scarf forward and counted the stitches along the prints length.  
“No Sarah. This wasn’t made by anything native to America.”  
“Not Sontarans in the woods again” she teased, almost to keep her own spirits up.  
“I don’t think they have claws.” He paused as if seriously considering the problem of Sontaran feet. Then with a glance he was back off up the slope. “Come on Sarah, we better go where they go.”

2  
The cobbles ran out a little further along and the footprints became clearer to Sarah’s view.  
The Doctor was barrelling ahead, heedless of the steadily darkening sky. Somewhere high above the fog the moon had become ensnared in cloud. Sarah chewed at her lip in thought only to have her concentration shattered by a resonant exclamation from ahead.  
“Aha! There's a light up ahead”  
“And that helps us how?”  
“Well, it’s off the trail and the footprints are headed that way. Plus where there's light in this period there's a good chance of being out of the weather.”

Faulkner Lodge was a stately affair; some of its walls were even brick. It had clearly stood for some time and, to Sarah's eye, had spent much of it struggling to maintain form against the rigours of the weather. It reminded her of her Aunt's place, only substituting actual land and a barn for a tiny market garden.

From inside, the stately feel of the place was maintained by an entrance hall that had been whitewashed as though it were a municipal building.  
The trappings of money were mouldering in every corner. A stuffed bear that had gone bald in places, a handsome grandfather clock that still kept perfect time despite the damage to its face. Candles replaced the gas lamps on the wall; their supply long since spent.  
When the clang of the bell had rung twice a thin wild haired figure burst out of the drawing room door yelling for the servant girl.

“Millie! Damn your eyes what is the point in paying any servant if none of them are here to do a job.” He yelled her name again before cursing and stalking to the front door, throwing it wide open dramatically in his anger.  
The Doctor brushed into the hallway with a bombastic “Good Evening, is the master of the house available?” Sarah followed along quietly in his shadow, taking in everything around her with shrewd eyes.

The thin man at the door pulled sharply at his waistcoat and drew himself to his full height. He wore a black suit with a bright yellow cravat looped at the stiff formal collar. His pitch-black hair had settled to hang greasily from the centre of his head creating a messy fringe.  
“I am Abraham Faulkner, what do you mean by this intrusion? And at this time of night!”  
The Doctor turned on the little man and glared piercingly at him.  
“I mean to prevent the deaths of everyone in this house, very possibly in the entire continent.”  
“Whatever are you raving about, man. Get out of my house!” Abraham yelled stepping toward the eccentric with what he hoped was threat in his eyes.

The Doctor stood his ground, bowing his head ominously and stared past Abraham, hissing his next words into the mans ear.  
“There is a dark something abroad on the road and I have reason to believe that’s its path has led to your home. For the sake of everyone here you must let me find it before it finds you!” Abraham stepped back from the intruder and raised a warning a finger but never got so far as to reply for a commotion erupted from the door under the stairs.

Flung back on its hinges the door cracked loudly against the woodwork as a short figure dressed in the same style as Abraham, bar a green cravat and the affectation of a grey wig, burst into the hall. His dark eyes were set back over his sharp nose. His wig was askew and a trickle of blood trailed from his temple.  
Abraham turned his warning finger on the new arrival. “Ternum, we have guests!”  
The man started wildly around him, taking in the figures but ignoring them, motioning frantically to the door he’d just come through he blinked and yelled.

“Never mind that brother, the angel, the angel is loose!”  
The Doctor broke into a run from a standing start and threw himself into the doorway. As Sarah watched, chitinous grey talons shot from the darkness and raked at the time lord’s face.  
He cried out and pitched forward into the arms of the creature.  
As it stepped into the light carrying its prey, Sarah failed to see why the brothers had mistaken it for an angel.  
It was taller than a man; stick thin like a scarecrow, it had four arms, two clawed and two six fingered hands.  
It's head was an armoured mask of feeling, lit red from the inside.  
When it opened its mouth row upon row of pointed teeth flashed in the candlelight.  
Then it screamed.


	2. Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What have the Faulkner brothers been hiding?  
> Where is the maid?  
> Can Sarah Jane save the Doctor?

“Never mind that brother, the angel, the angel is loose!”  
The Doctor broke into a run from a standing start and threw himself into the doorway.   
As Sarah watched, chitinous grey talons shot from the darkness and raked at the time lord’s face. He cried out and pitched forward into the arms of the creature. 

The slim, imposing form stepped into the light carrying its prey. Sarah failed to see why the brothers had mistaken it for an angel. It was taller than a man, stick thin like a scarecrow. It had four arms, two bearing claws and two with six fingered hands.   
It's head was an armoured mask of feeling, lit red from the inside.   
When it opened its mouth row upon row of pointed teeth flashed in the candlelight. Then it screamed.

Sarah covered her ears instinctively and ducked. The creature unfurled great, bat like wings from nowhere and dived past her.   
She turned in time to see it enveloped by the fog outside, the Doctor still in its slender arms.

Abraham recovered his senses first and ran for the front door, staring desperately for a moment before slamming it shut and throwing the bolt across.

“I don’t know what you’ve been hiding in here but that wasn’t any kind of angel I’ve heard of!” Sarah complained loudly at the brothers.   
“We are not answerable to you..” Abraham began but was cut off by a gentle hand on his shoulder.   
He turned to his brother who nodded quietly.  
“Perhaps, brother, we should be. Now that the angel is abroad so soon... It is better that the world knows of our intent, this young lady may be able to help spread the good word.”  
As the two men looked at each other a crash was heard from the other side of the hallway.   
Sarah jumped but made her way to investigate when the two brothers seemed frozen to the spot.

She found a dark haired young girl in the remains of a maids uniform staggering from what appeared to be the kitchen doorway.   
“Hey? You all right?” the girl looked up in time to fall into Sarah’s arms in a dead faint.   
The movement spurred Ternum Faulkner into life and he ran to help Sarah carry the maid, directing her into the drawing room where a comfortable sofa awaited them. Sarah noted that it was still some distance from the fire and immediately judged how much the brothers valued the maid.   
Once the girl appeared to be comfortable Sarah politely thanked Ternum, counted to 10 under her breath and only then rounded on her reluctant hosts.  
“Now I thinks its time for some explanation, whatever that thing is it's marched off into the night with my friend!”  
“Calm yourself, girl.” Abraham urged but was once more waved to silence by his brother.   
Ternum motioned for Sarah to take a seat, already picking out a chair nearer the fire for himself.   
Abraham clicked his tongue and lent agitatedly against the sideboard as his brother began their tale.

“Some months ago my brother and I were tending to the repairs of our boundaries when we heard the most unearthly roar. Glancing heavenward we were astonished to find the angel plummeting towards us, its body wreathed in flames. We barely made it out of the way before it struck the ground. We rushed to its aid, fearing the worst. The fall alone must have wrought a terrible damage upon its frame. But lo and behold the creature lived. True, it did not resemble the beauteous joy of the angels we all praise of a Sunday but I consider myself a well-read man and I know what Milton tells of the fall.   
If this was indeed a fallen angel then we mere mortals must do what we can to preserve it, restore its health and with luck we may even restore its faith, allow it to find its path back to god.”

“Sounds a little altruistic to me, given what I've seen so far.” Sarah replied with the faintest edge of sarcasm.  
“I must confess that the thought had occurred to me that it would be powerful tool in impressing the heathens and even some of the brethren of these parts. But first it needs it's health.   
And thus our first quandary, what to feed an angel? We tried many things, but it seemed to delight in raw ingredients, as fresh as possible. Fortunately our grounds are fertile enough for it. Then we took it out, to the coast to see how well it fared on contact with God’s earth.”

“Why do I suspect that it didn’t exactly throw a party?”  
“On the contrary, it revelled in the ocean, saltwater seemed to revitalise it. And every night after we returned from one of those trips it would sing. If you had heard that song this night, you too would be convinced of its divine nature.”  
“This night? You mean you’ve taken it out today?”  
“Quite so. But it did not sing, as you saw, quite the reverse. I cannot understand what has driven it to this current course”   
Sarah frowned at the man as he tailed off, loosing himself in thought. Abraham stood straight and tugged at his waistcoat.  
“She does not believe you brother, I knew she would not.”

“I’m not surprised, it’s all rubbish anyway.” rumbled a deep voice from the doorway.   
Three heads turned to find the Doctor grinning madly at them, the scars on his cheeks a pale white against his skin.   
“You slander my brother in our own home!” Abraham yelled but the Doctor ignored him Sarah stood and started towards her friend but he held a hand in warning.

“Stay back Sarah, Its not safe to get too close to me just yet.”  
“What do you mean?” Sarah asked worriedly.  
“That creature is far from being an angel. It’s a Vinak-Shal, a creature of the vortex. My people thought them long extinct but obviously they were very wrong.” He winced sharply and moved his warning hand to his side. “They drift on the time winds until they find a suitable locale, somewhere out of the way with creatures who won’t be missed. Then they send in a scout and mutate the local populace into beings of their own kind.”

“Mutate?”   
“I’m afraid so. Those claws are lined with the invasive genome of their species. Unless I can find an antidote, very soon I’ll become one of them.”   
Abraham squared up to the time lord. “Rubbish, one cannot become an angel by a mere scratch of the arm”  
“You’ve not listened to a word I said have you..” the Doctor began.

He was interrupted by a wet tearing sound.   
All eyes in the room moved towards the sofa.   
The body of the maid was rippling and turning as though something was trying to tear itself free.   
With another burst of noise her body rose up and dark leathery wings tore themselves through the back of her dress. 

Abraham screamed.

“Back, everyone get back from her!” The Doctor ordered.   
Sarah rushed to his side, dragging Abraham in her wake.   
But as she watched, Ternum instead made his way toward the girl.  
“It is a sign, Millie, you have been transformed!” he moved to embrace the girl as she stood.   
With a sickening inevitability the maid’s mouth opened to reveal a mass of pointed teeth that sank into Ternum’s neck.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can The Doctor stop the Vinik-Shal from consuming all life on Earth?

All eyes in the room moved towards the sofa. The body of the maid was rippling and turning as though something was trying to tear itself free. With another burst of noise her body rose up and dark leathery wings tore themselves through the back of her dress.   
Abraham screamed.

“Back, everyone get back from her!” the Doctor ordered. Sarah rushed to his side, dragging Abraham in her wake. But as she watched, Ternum instead made his way toward the girl.  
“It is a sign, Millie, you have been transformed!” he moved to embrace the girl as she stood.   
With a sickening inevitability the maid’s mouth opened to reveal a mass of pointed teeth that sank into Ternum’s neck.

Abraham continued screaming as Sarah pulled him from the room.   
She followed the Doctor at a distance as he made for the door through which the creature had first appeared.   
The terrified man in her arms struggled further as he realised where they were going and succeeded in pulling free.   
He raced up the stairs, babbling verse to himself. Sarah made to go after him but the Dr grabbed her wrist.  
“Let him go Sarah, we don’t have time to nurse him, we have to put a stop to all this.”  
“But if those vinny shall things catch up with him he's as good as dead!”  
“What! If we don’t stop this now millions might die.”  
She pulled free from his grasp and glared at him but reluctantly followed.

The door led into a short L shaped corridor that revealed a large open space at the rear of the house.   
Probably the storage barn Sarah had spotted. Ternum had boasted of the fertile grounds, before the Vinak-Shal arrived it was probably a farm of some kind.   
Now though, the place was filled with thick cobwebs, turning its walls white and indistinct.

The Doctor marched into the centre of the room and stood with an expression of rapt concentration on his face.   
Sarah walked towards him, an oddly colourless figure in the white walls of web.   
Compared to outside and even the living by the fire, the space was boiling and Sarah removed her parka, dropping it by the door when she couldn’t find anywhere to hang it.

-

In the main hall Abraham Faulkner ran back down the stairs, rifle in hand.   
He made straight for the drawing room door and pushed it gingerly open.   
Advancing with the rifle raised he shot at the first sign of the creature that had once been his faithful maid.

It tumbled backward across the room, tripping over the hearth and crumpling into the roaring fire.   
It's wings beat desperately but served only to fan the flames around it, the scream that eruptd from its distorted lips was all to human.

Abraham ignored the creature’s plight and rushed to the bloody form of his fallen elder brother.   
Kneeling behind him he lifted him into his lap and stroked at his cheek tenderly.  
“You fool Ternum, you stupid, stupid fool.” He cried.

His sobs almost drowned out the screams of the creature on fire, which in turn _almost_ drowned the wet tearing sound closer by. 

By the time Abraham had remembered where he had heard it before his brother’s new wings had unfurled, impaling him in their fury.   
When the creature that had been Ternum opened its mouth it was with a scream of pain the like of which the Earth should never have had to hear.

-

In the barn the Doctor opened his eyes at the sound of the gunshot.  
“We have to hurry Sarah, the other’s will be here soon.”  
“Other’s?”  
“The Vinak-Shal that the Faulkner’s captured was just a scout. When it failed to report a drone would have been sent to retrieve it.”  
“Of course, the footprints on the road, they weren’t from the one Ternum had here were they.”  
“And I think it may have been responsible for assaulting the maid.”

“What can we do?”  
“I’m fighting the transformation, if I can just control it I should be able to communicate with them. But whatever happens to me Sarah, you have keep out of the way – whatever they say or do, keep back from them you understand?”  
Sarah nodded and turned at the sound of footsteps in the corridor.

Two of the creatures walked slowly into the room moving to points either side of the door.   
One of them was the helmeted creature she had seen earlier; the other was stockier, with eyes more like a lizard. 

They stood impassively until the Doctor cried out in pain.   
Sarah risked a look back at him and saw his eyes rolled back in their sockets as a wet tearing announced the arrival of another set of the thin leathery wings in the room.   
Torn between the urge to help him and the realisation that his warning included himself Sarah settled on walking into the centre of the triangle formed by the three creatures.   
She rounded on lizard eyes. “Stop this, can’t you stop this?”

If the creature understood it didn’t respond.   
The scout opened its mouth and began to sing.   
Sarah stood open mouthed at the range and beauty of its voice. For a moment she understood Ternum Faulkner’s mistake. 

Behind her a deeper, less assured note joined the scout in its song, the Doctor had become part of the chorus. 

Sarah felt tears on her cheek and panic began to well in her stomach.  
Finally a contralto from the lizard made the web like walls of the room shimmer.   
Sarah was forced to once again block her ears.   
The web was resonating, making the whole room a giant speaker and she was at the epicentre of it all.   
When the noise became too much she crumpled delicately to the ground.

-

Sarah awoke to find the Doctor’s familiar eyes scanning her face with concern as he leaned over her.   
She smiled at him and rolled over to kneel up. “Doctor?”  
He managed a weak smile then crumpled to his knees, his coat and scarf splaying around him.   
She reached to steady him and glanced upward, dismayed to find the leathery wings of the Vinak-Shal still present on his back.   
The time lord hissed with pain and she reached for his cheek, tracing the scars of his assault with her fingertips.

“It didn’t work then?”  
“Come now Sarah, have a little faith.” He whispered hoarsely. The words seemed distant, unnatural without his customary booming confidence. “They’ve gone haven’t they?”  
She glanced around but there was no sign of the creatures, just web and curling mist.

“Yep. Looks like they left the door open though, there’s fog coming in.”  
“This isn’t fog, it’s smoke. I think the house is on fire.”  
“What! Then we have to get out of here!”  
“I can’t go yet Sarah. There's one more song to sing. Wait for me in the TARDIS.”   
She helped him to stand and he forced a toothy grin onto his pained features.  
“See you soon.” He urged.   
Sarah stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek.   
Then she turned and ran from the room, pausing only to collect her coat.

-

The Doctor was right. The house was indeed on fire.   
As she ran for the front door Sarah guessed the blaze must have started in the drawing room.   
She prayed that the gas lamps were indeed disconnected as she made her way through the thick smoke.

She held the sleeve of the parka over her mouth as she burst from the house and ran for the roadway down the dirt track.   
Outside, the fog had lifted to a cloudless sky lit pale blue by a half moon.   
Sarah didn’t stop running until she reached the cobblestones.   
There she turned back; face streaming with tears, as the roof of the Faulkner house caved in.  
She waited, hoping for a sign of her friend.   
She didn’t know how long she had stood there before she hooked the TARDIS key from around her neck and started solemnly down the roadway.

When she reached the familiar shape of the TARDIS she finally looked back to the house.   
It's orange glow still lit the fields nearby and clouds of dense smoke were drifting away from her.   
She put a hand on the battered blue police box and squeezed at the thrum of power that met her hand.

“What am I supposed to do now, I can’t fly you can I?” Sarah asked the impassive time ship.   
Forlornly she raised the key and entered the vessel.

-

“Ah, there you are, what kept you?” The Doctor asked, concentrating on the controls he was throwing as the doors closed behind her.  
“You. But you were..” she flustered, throwing the parka over the banister of the stairs that led down from the door.

“Was I? Well I’m sure that all makes sense to someone. Now where to next, hmm?”  
Sarah marched over to him, squeezed past the rail around the console and punched him hard on the arm.  
“I thought you were dead you great nit!” she complained at him.

“Really Sarah Jane? And to what would I have owed that pleasure?”  
“Being trapped in a burning building turning into a monster?”  
“Oh, that. Well, every transformation has its advantages.” He boggled at her with his insanely infectious grin and she found herself smiling back at her best friend. 

“Oh, go on then, tell me how you did it, I can see your dying to show ne how clever you were.”  
“Well, it was quite simple really. The Vinak-Shal, despite their parasitic nature as creatures of the vortex, have a certain affinity for time and space. They use sound waves to vibrate the membranes on their backs, the wings if you like, to alter their position in regard to the vortex. The webwork that the creature had built acted as a sort of resonance chamber but I didn’t know the words to the right song.”

“So you sang a song and the monsters went away, right?”  
“Not really, they sang a song that sent them where they were supposed to be and I sang it again later.”  
“So why couldn’t you do it while I was there!”

“Well, you didn’t have the wings, and besides, I thought you’d enjoy the exercise.”  
“Do you want me to thump you again?”  
The Doctor raised his hands in surrender before dropping one of them into the open console panel and pressing the dematerialization switch.

Around them the rise and fall of ancient engines roared into life, dragging them away from the smouldering ruin of the Faulkner estate and off towards another adventure.


End file.
